I LIBRA I! Y OF CONGRESS, 1 



f UNITED STATES (IE AMERICA, t 



<&l)e Canguoge of Miction: 



SERMON, 

OCCASIONED BY THE 

DEATH OF ADELINE RIDER, 

DELIVERED IN THE 

REF. DUTCH CHURCH OF CHATHAM, 

ON 

SABBATH, FEBRUARY 1, 1846. 

BY THE REV. E. S/PORTER, 

PASTOR OF SAID CHURCH. 



ALBANY: 
PRINTED BY J. MUNSELL. 
1846. 



ST l)e £cmguage of Affliction: 



SERMON, 

OCCASIONED BY THE 

DEATH OF ADELINE RIDER, 

DELIVEHED IN THE 

REF. DUTCH CHURCH OF CHATHAM, 

ON 

SABBATH, FEBRUARY 1, 1846. 



BY THE REV. E. S. PORTER, 

PASTOR OF SAID CHURCH. 




ALBANY: 
PRINTED BY J. MUNSELL. 
1846. 



This sermon is published by the friends of the deceased, 
and to them it is respectfully inscribed, by their friend and 
pastor 5 who, while deeply sympathizing with them in their 
recent bereavement, most earnestly commends them to the 
grace of an all-sufficient Saviour. 



FUNERAL SERMON. 



JOB II., 10. 

What ! shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we 
not receive evil ? 

No condition in life can exempt us from trials and 
calamities. They form a part, and a prominent 
part of our earthly possessions. The defenceless 
poor cannot ward off the blows which will success- 
ively fall upon them; nor can the most princely 
fortune purchase immunity from the ills incident 
to our present existence. Learning- has no spell by 
which it may charm the hard features of adversity; 
nor can ignorance shield itself from the many ar- 
rows which are flying around. The feebleness of 
age, and the helplessness of infancy, are not beyond 
the reach of evil; nor can the strong man, who 
glorieth in his strength, say to the hand of Provi- 
dence, thus far shalt thou come, but no farther. 

But while no rank or condition can escape from 
the troubles of this brief pilgrimage, it is in various 
ways that God puts to our lips the cup of bitterness. 
Sometimes it is by despoiling us of our goods, and 
casting us out upon the cold and freezing charity of 
the world. Sometimes the hand of disease presses 
upon us, and our bodies are racked with pain and 



4 



suffering. Frequently we are betrayed by our fa- 
miliar friends, and hard ingratitude and cold neg- 
lect are returned for unwearied kindness. Some- 
times our fondest and most cherished hopes are 
blasted as in a moment, and we are left to all the 
bitterness of disappointment. And often, too, God 
sends the dark Angel of Death to our homes. 
The shadow of his wing falls upon those whom a 
fond affection has idolized, and they are snatched 
from our embrace, and hurried off to the cold and 
unfeeling grave. The winds of winter howl over 
their resting place, but they heed them not. The 
warm spring-time, with its sunshine and its flowers, 
will cast the mantle of its light over their place of 
sepulture, but darkness and corruption will reign 
beneath. 

Yes, sorrow is everywhere. No lot in life so fa- 
vored as to be beyond the reach of its visitations ; 
no clime so fair and beautiful as to be forever 
cloudless and serene ; no home so happy as to be 
undisturbed by the heavy tread and melancholy 
footsteps of a bowed and stricken mourner. 

And it is well for us to remember this; for too 
often are we disposed to think, that the trials which 
we are called to endure are singularly hard and 
oppressive. The heart, it is true, knows its own 
bitterness best. The children of affliction feel the 
arrow far more sensibly and poignantly, than they 
can conceive Avho never have been pierced. But 
in studying the ways of Providence, we will find 
that we are social, even in our griefs ; that while 
we are bowing under the stroke of a present calami- 



5 



ty, many a heart and many an eye are sighing and 
weeping with like afflictions. For happiness and 
suffering are far more equally distributed, than we 
might, without due reflection, be disposed to think. 

Every heart has its own peculiar sorrow ; every 
bosom its bleeding wound. And why should it not 
be thus? Why should sinful man be free from 
chastisement? If there were no God ruling over 
the subjects of his moral empire ; if there were no 
just and necessary connection between sin and sor- 
row, then we might perhaps be justified in mur- 
muring because of the calamities which fall upon 
us. 

But "what! shall we receive good at the hand 
of God, and shall we not receive evil ?" 

That the Holiest and the Best is constantly lavish- 
ing benefits upon us, in every position which we 
occupy, cannot be denied, and should never be for- 
gotten. The strong pulsations of divine love are 
constantly prompting the hand of our Heavenly 
Father to the bestowment of the richest gifts. The 
morning sun is the herald of our Great Friend in 
his daily visitations; and the evening star, as it 
glows and glitters in the nightly firmament, is but 
the emblem of that all-seeing eye, which never 
slumbers, nor sleeps, but is ever watching over us. 
" In God we live, and move, and have our being." 
But it is strange, so blind are the eles of our under- 
standings, and so stupid are our hearts, that we often 
vainly and wickedly imagine that, because divine fa- 
vors are so frequent and so regular, therefore we 
are entitled to them by right ; and that when in wis- 



6 



dom he withholds what we most anxiously desire, 
he is either unkind or unmindful of us. 

Far rather should we ask, with the venerable 
patriarch of old, "What! shall we receive good at 
the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil ?" 

This, we believe, is a question which seldom pre- 
sents itself to our minds. So accustomed are we to 
look to a beneficent God for direct and positive 
blessings, that it is difficult for us to feel how de- 
serving we are of evil ; and hard for us to see that 
our Heavenly Father may manifest his goodness 
towards us, as well by striking us to the dust, as in 
lifting us to the loftiest heights of external pros- 
perity. 

But let us confine our attention to some conside- 
rations suggested by the text selected as the subject 
of our meditations on this occasion. 

We should expect evil from the hand of God, because 
we deserve it. 

There is no character on earth unsullied in the 
sight of God, no integrity that is spotless, no life so 
correct as not to merit censure from Him who can- 
not look upon sin. The praises of the world may 
pamper our vanity, and feed the greediness of our 
self-esteem; the whirl of pleasure and the hot 
pursuit of the perishable, may beguile our judg- 
ments, may pervert or silence the language of con- 
science, may turn aside for a season the rays of 
truth ; but when the hour of honest and severe reflec- 
tion arrives, when the soul exercises the high office 
of a judge upon itself, when thoughts and motives 
ai.d actions are all weighed in the balance of strict 



7 



and unerring truth ; it is then that the result of our 
self-communion will coincide with and illustrate 
that holy word, which declares, in the plainest lan- 
guage, the guilt of the human heart. And although 
we may be slow to set about a duty of this kind, 
though our pride may revolt at a self-acknowledged 
unworthiness and guilt, yet the fact remains un- 
alterably the same. While we may be disposed to 
search Heaven and Earth for apologies whereby to 
palliate and excuse our transgressions, after all, 
when we stand revealed to ourselves, we shall be 
ready to confess with the manly humility of David, 
" Against Thee have I sinned, and done evil in thy 
sight." 

We are born under the curse of a violated law. 
One great legacy hath been handed down to us 
through a long line of ancestry, and that is, a dis- 
position to sin. We are by nature the children of 
wrath. No refinement of education, no polish of 
manners, no cunning counterfeiting of virtue, no 
costly sacrifices at the shrine of an unconquered 
selfishness, can destroy the deadly virus within. 
The passions still remain disordered and perverted. 
The understanding may have an eye, but it lingers 
not with delight upon the glory and the holiness of 
God. Who shall say that a nature thus offensive 
to infinite purity, does not merit evil, however 
much Grace may lavish kindness upon it ? 

And if Grace, with all its renewing energies, con- 
quer, and the quickening spirit implant the seeds 
of heavenly vitality, even then the deceitfulness of 
sin still lingers around the citadel in which the 



8 

Saviour hath broken the sceptre and the throne of 
evil. The heart is still the place of contrary and 
conflicting- emotions, and so long as the flesh en- 
dures, so long will those desires, which are of the 
flesh, lead us but too frequently astray, weaken 
gracious affections, and impair the power of gracious 
truths upon our hearts. 

The soothing- language of the world's friendship 
may fall in sweet cadences upon our ears; an un- 
baptized and false philosophy may advance lofty 
views of the purity of human nature ; and a vicious 
self-confidence may dupe us into a false estimate, 
both of our own merits and our own guilt ; but the 
*ule by which the Omniscient Mind measures our 
motives and our conduct, is far different from that 
which we employ in estimating the characters of 
our fellow men. That Mind looks beneath every 
exterior, penetrates every fair disguise, and beholds 
the thoughts, the intents, the purposes of our hearts. 
Our secret as well as our more public sins are in the 
light of his countenance. And if our moral nature 
is thus scrutinized by the Holy One, surely we must 
confess how guilty we become in his sight. 

If, in addition to this, we take into the account 
the manner in which we pervert God's goodness; 
how we use his very benefits as instruments of re- 
bellion against him ; how we abuse the unnum- 
bered mercies of his hand, by employing them in 
modes most contrary to his will ; how we neglect 
the sacred obligations under which we are placed, 
by substituting self in the room of the Creator, and 
giving our affections and our services to the finite, 



9 



instead of the Infinite : then indeed must we ac- 
knowledge, with the deepest humility, that we are 
unprofitable servants ; and a review of our lives, 
contrasted with the divine patience and forbearance, 
will compel us to exclaim, in all sincerity, "why 
should a living man complain, a man for the pun- 
ishment of his sins ?" 

Yes, God's benefits to us are all of his abounding 
love ; the sorrows which He sends are all of desert. 
If we have made that most difficult of all attain- 
ments, the knowledge of ourselves, we will be 
ready, both in prosperity and in adversity, to say, 
in the language of the text, "What! shall we re- 
ceive good at the hand of God, and shall we not 
receive evil ? 

"We proceed to remark, That we should expect evil 
from the hand of God as well as good, if we observe the 
tenor of his dealings with his most favored children. 

The scriptures of truth no where give assurances 
that the most eminent attainments in piety will se- 
cure their possessors a smooth and easy pathway 
through this world. The way wherein they must 
walk is a way of rocks, of pits. Sometimes it leads 
through dark and shaded valleys; sometimes over 
barren, wild, rugged mountains, where the tempests 
make their home, and where the winds sweep in 
ruthless fury. 

" In this world ye shall have tribulation," was 
the declaration of our blessed Lord — He who 
came to speak peace, to wipe away the tears of sor- 
row, to relieve the anguished heart; whose every 
word was goodness, whose every act was grace. 

2 



10 



He never pledged to his followers a full fruition of 
happiness, while wearing the garments of earth, 
and treading its thorn-planted ways. Crosses they 
must bear, and he plainly told them this ; calami- 
ties would befal them, and this he did not conceal. 

That Providence, which is God in action, illus- 
trates and confirms the pledges of his word. The 
most eminent saints in every generation have been 
subjected to sore trials and calamities, sent upon 
them for the perfecting of their faith and patience. 
Jehovah has refined them, but not with silver. He 
hath chosen them in the furnace of affliction. That 
cloud of witnesses to the power of faith, men of 
whom the world was not worthy; whose eulogy 
hath been written by Paul; whose holy lives have 
caused the church and the world to cherish the 
fragrance of their memories — each was led through 
many and severe scenes of trial and discipline. 
Look at the venerable author of our text. How 
quickly is the brightness of his prosperity changed 
into the gloom and tempest of adversity; so that 
he cries out, " My face is foul with weeping, and on 
mine eyelids is the shadow of death;" yet with the 
confidence of faith you hear him exclaim, "I know 
that my Redeemer liveth." 

Follow the histories of David, of Jeremiah, of 
Paul, of Peter — saints under the old and saints un- 
der the new testament dispensation — you will find 
that the waters of a full cup were poured out to 
them. Theirs was not a primrose path of easy 
dalliance ; their way was not softened by the 
sweetness of yielding flowers ; but their march was 



11 

amid cloud, and storm, and fire ; and albeit cohorts 
of angels were in attendance, to cheer and strength- 
en, yet must they he trained and disciplined by 
lessons of affliction, for the possession of an unbro- 
ken rest in the heavenly world. Their trials may 
not perhaps be regarded in the light of punishments, 
but they were the chastisements of a parent, who 
sought to refine and purify his children. 

Yes, in every age and in every clime, they whose 
path seemed encompassed with a heavenly radi- 
ance, whose steps were firmly set in the journey 
toward the blessed ]and, whose spirits were most 
illuminated by the light of saving truth, these were 
they whose names were synonymous with suffering. 
At the fires burning around her sons, Truth has 
kindled her brightest torches; from the lips of 
God's most deeply afflicted children, Piety has 
culled its most enrapturing language ; and over the 
fragments of a broken heart, Grace has achieved its 
divinest victories. In the sublime visions of the 
sage of Patmos, we hear the elder saying, " What 
are these which are arrayed in white robes? and 
whence came they ? These are they which came 
out of great tribulation, and have washed their 
robes and made them white in the blood of the 
Lamb." Thus it is that God takes the hearts of 
his children, and breaks them down, and then re- 
constructs them into a temple, where the Holy 
Spirit dwells, to comfort and to guide. 

Even our blessed Lord became "a man of sor- 
rows, acquainted with grief." For it became Him 
for whom are all things, and by whom are all 



12 



things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make 
the Captain of their salvation perfect through suf- 
ferings. Though he were perfect in himself, yet 
bearing as he did the imputed guilt of his people, 
he must ascend to the possession of his mediatorial 
throne, amid scofflngs and cruel mockings, amid the 
assaults of Earth and Hell ; over the ground which 
he had watered with his tears; from the cross, 
which he consecrated by his blood. 

If such has been the course of our Father's deal- 
ings with those who walked constantly before him, 
and participated most in his favor, shall not we all, 
unworthy as we are, glory in tribulation, knowing 
that tribulation worketh patience, and patience ex- 
perience, and experience hope ; for that hope will 
be an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, enter- 
ing into that within the veil. 

Thus it is that God oftentimes sends sorest trials, 
only that he may manifest his richest goodness ; 
he wounds that he may heal, he prostrates that he 
may elevate. " Call upon me," is his language, " in 
the day of trouble ; I will deliver thee, and thou 
shalt glorify me." 

Moreover, We should expect evil from the hand of 
God, if we rightly apprehend the benevolence of the Di- 
vine character. 

Delightful indeed is the assurance that God is 
Love. To know that that Almighty Being who 
holds the universe in his hand and directs the stu- 
pendous machinery of an unmeasured creation in 
obedience to his all-controlling will ; at whose voice 



13 



the firm foundations of the Earth do tremble; at 
whose command the Heavens and the Earth shall 
flee away, to know that the great Ruler of all, as 
he marshals the planets in their orbits, and feeds 
the ravens when they cry; as he wields the forces 
of the moral world, lifting up the humblest, and 
abasing the haughty ; to know that He in whose 
presence we are as nothing, and in whose hands 
our destinies are, is Love, is one of the most cheer- 
ing and most consolatory of all truths of which we 
are capable of obtaining possession. 

But it is in manifold and various ways that the 
Being whose name is Love, manifests his goodness 
to his sinful subjects. It is not only through the 
thousand channels of the open world around us ; it 
is not only through the multiplied mercies of daily 
life ; not only through the holy sufferer on the brow 
of Calvary ; but also in the trials Avhich he sends, 
and in the afflictions which he despatches, to the 
children of men. In all these, God evidences the 
benevolence of his character. We may affirm that 
the goodness of the Highest is a pledge that he will 
send afflictions and chastisements upon us. 

The sun not only warms and invigorates the 
flower by the brightness of his rays, but he also ga- 
thers in the firmament the dark and seemingly an- 
gry cloud, that it may discharge its fertilizing trea- 
sures upon the soil whereon that flower grows. So 
it is with God's love; that, too, often gathers the 
clouds of adversity around us, in order that our 
hearts may be moistened and enriched by their de- 



14 



scending influences; causing us to believe, with 
the Poet : 

" Sweet are the uses of adversity; 
Which, like a toad, ugly and venomous, 
Bears yet a precious jewel in his head." 

If to know God, to realize our dependence upon 
him, to feel how utterly helpless we are in the 
achievement of aught that is good, without his 
grace to assist; to live with a consciousness of our 
unworthiness, and a consequent reliance upon a 
Saviour ; if all these and more be great and prime 
duties, with which it is in the highest degree neces- 
sary we should be acquainted, if we would secure 
an endless life, then must we grant that affliction 
may be regarded as an evidence of the love of God. 
For afflictions, if properly interpreted, convey to us 
the most salutary instructions. 

Affliction teaches us God's sovereignty. While 
we may be ready at all times to acknowledge with 
our lips the supremacy of the all- wise; yet how 
frequently is the thought banished from our minds; 
how seldom does it exercise a practical influence 
on our hearts. So distasteful is this truth to the 
spiritual palate of man, that it is oftentimes the last 
which he is willing to receive ; and it too frequent- 
ly happens that resistance to this truth is prolonged 
to such an extent, that eternity is left to communi- 
cate it with a horrible clearness. The language, 
however, which God speaks through every afflic- 
tion is, "Be still, and know that I am God." It 
was thus that Jehovah instructed his ancient cove- 



15 



nant people, and such too is the meaning of those 
grievous calamities which hecame our portion. 
And this fact — the Lord reigneth — should go far 
to soften the pride and obduracy of our hearts. 
The tendency and disposition of sin is to proclaim 
a declaration of independence even of the Creator, 
to deny his authority over us, and dispute his 
claims to our undivided affections and services. 
Upon the pride of our unsubdued natures the light 
of prosperity falls oftentimes only to foster and 
strengthen the rebellious passions of our souls. 

When the voyage of life seems all smooth and 
easy; when favoring winds waft us onward, and 
every swelling of the water does but give a fresh 
impetus to our barks; it is then that we are too apt 
to place a boastful reliance upon our own wisdom 
and skill, forgetful of that Almighty Pilot, " who 
rideth upon the wings of the wind, and whose path 
is in the deep waters:" but when the storms arise, 
and the winds beat upon us with furious energy, 
then, as once on the stormy Sea of Galilee, the 
prayer gushes from the heart, " Lord save, or we 
perish." Prosperity pampers our pride, adversity 
humbles it; prosperity fans our confidence in the 
might of man, affliction chases away the delusion, 
and bids us trust in the living God. 

So strange and yet so true it is that even through 
the gloom and darkness of present sorrow, we are 
able to discern the awful form of truth more dis- 
tinctly than when surrounded by the splendor and 
dazzled by the blaze of a noon-tide prosperity. As 
the darkness of night is necessary to reveal unto us 



16 



the countless orbs of Heaven, so in the night time 
of sorrow and care, those truths, all radiant with 
the light of God's love, and which had been quite 
unseen before, emit those cheering rays which melt 
the icy fetters of the heart, and open the long seal- 
ed fountains of gratitude and joy and trust in the 
Father of lights. 

And very strong too is the tendency of affliction 
to wean us from the idolatry of the world. 

Our unsanctified emotions and desires are con- 
stantly impelling us onward in the undirected and 
excessive pursuit of the perishable. The trifles of 
time stand out on the extended mass of anticipa- 
tion as so many mountains of gold, or as so many 
gorgeous temples of happiness, for the attainment 
of which the heart beats with its highest pulse, and 
the nerves are strung to the greatest endurance. 
Years, with all their accumulated stores of experi- 
ence, may demonstrate that disappointments have 
been far more numerous than our successes, and 
that even when our cheeks have been flushed with 
the joy of realized hopes, there has come over us 
a sadness and a blight, bidding us know that the 
trail of the serpent leads over all the pleasures de- 
rived from an earthly source. They are 

"Born like the brilliance of the sun-set sky, 
To glow a moment, and as soon to die." 

Our plans, constructed on the most clear-sighted 
calculations of human wisdom, have been at fault. 
The dreams of ambition have faded like the exha- 
lations of the dawn. The hardest toil has resulted 
but too frequently in plucking the apples of Sodom 



17 



and the clusters of Gomorrah. Poorly indeed does 
the world repay her votaries ; to the man of pleasure 
she gives sickness of soul; to the worshipper of 
gold she gives a glittering casket, filled with anxie- 
ty and care — the true Pandora's hox of ancient 
fahle; to the seeker of fame she extends a roll 
lighter than gossamer, inscribed with characters as 
unintelligible as the voice of music in the ear of 
Death. 

But notwithstanding the beggarly wages received 
in the wo3;ld's service, we are loath to leave it, until 
the thunder mutters over our heads, and the blow 
falls which dissolves the spell and breaks the en- 
chantment. When the objects on which we have 
centered our regards are taken from us; when the 
streams of earthly joys are dried up; when we 
stand on the broken fragments of the fair fabrics of 
earthly happiness, which Ave had fondly reared; 
then do we behold the truth realized — 

" He builds too low, who builds beneath the skies." 

Yes, afflictions tell us most emphatically, that this 
is not our home. They bid us arise and thread the 
way to the brightness and purity of an eternal habi- 
tation. If there be sorrow here, there is joy on 
high. If there be pain and anguish on Earth, there 
is a clime where every breath is happiness, and 
every sound is love. And how explicit is the lan- 
guage which the trials and tribulations of Earth 
speak unto us. By sundering the cords of worldly 
attachment, by revealing the poverty and shallow- 
ness of present enjoyments, God would woo us 

3 



18 



away from the shadows of time to the substantial 
realities of another world. Thus, to use the lan- 
guage of the gracious Leighton, " Under the habit 
of Judgment, Love walks and works." Thus our 
light afflictions, which are but for a moment, are 
designed to work out for us a far more exceeding 
and eternal weight of glory. 

You will permit me to observe in the next place, 
that Every affliction which we are called to endure, 
should be ascribed primarily, to the power of the Holiest. 

Chance and accident have no place in the em- 
pire of Jehovah. Amid all the apparent disorder 
and confusion which exist in the moral world, 
there is still the movement of a most celestial wis- 
dom and harmony. He who sees the end from the 
beginning, who holds in his hand the stupendous 
issues of the universe, while he employs material 
agents and natural causes in the evolution of his 
all-glorious designs, is nevertheless present to give 
efficiency to every agent and every second cause. 
Too frequently do the eyes of our understandings 
rest only upon the outward visible instruments of 
divine power, and we lose sight of that almighty 
hand which gives direction and efficiency to those 
instruments. Laws exist both in the natural and 
in the moral world ; but those laws have no energy 
independent of the will of their author. The laws 
by which a planet is impelled in its orbit, and by 
which a sparrow falls to the ground, are only the 
modes by which the Almighty executes the purposes 
of his will. Let us not then banish God in idea 
from his creation : let us recognize his hand as well 



19 



in the death of an insect, as in the creation of a 
world ; as well in the departure of a child beloved, 
as in the fall of the mightiest nations. He, in the 
height of whose infinity all distinctions between 
great and small are as nothing, presides over the 
affairs of our habitations, as well as over the ranks 
of adoring seraphim. While he counts the starry 
hosts, yet does he also number the hairs of our 
heads; and although his providence may be like 
the mystic car which Ezekiel saw, moving in a 
sublime grandeur, which sets at naught our feeble 
comprehension, let us however believe that there is 
a mighty and all-wise spirit within those wheels, 
directing them in the best ways. 

And how precious and consoling is this truth to 
our hearts, when the hour of harsh and severe trial 
arrives. We look then upon afflictions, not as the 
frowning spectres of a gloomy fatalism \ not as the 
accidents of a chance-governed world, but as the 
messengers of the Father of our being, chastening 
in wisdom, and grieving in love. Then we are 
taught with submissive confidence to say, "shall 
not the Judge of all the Earth do right? Clouds 
and darkness may surround the throne, but right- 
eousness and justice sway the sceptre. The bruised 
reed he will not break, and the smoking flax he 
will not quench, until he bring forth judgment 
unto victory. He doth not willingly grieve or 
afflict the children of men, but for their good. 
Knowing these invaluable truths, we may glory 
even in tribulation, if the love of God be shed 
b road in our hearts. And when we have ascended 



20 



to the heights of Calvary, and survey the afflictions 
of time from that sacred eminence, they will ap- 
pear to us like those clouds which sometimes come 
over the face of the sun, but while there, are suf- 
fused with a heavenly and a glorious radiance. 

But if God wounds, he alone is able to heal. 

To whom else shall we go but unto him ? He 
hath the words of eternal life. The language of a 
heartless philosophy has no balm for the wounded 
soul. The light of earthly pleasure in the house of 
mourning, is but as the taper burning in the death- 
damps of the vault; it may throw a ghastly bright- 
ness over the mouldering fragments of corruption, 
but has no power to dispel the darkness which 
shrouds the gate of the grave. 

But there is one who can sympathize and con- 
sole. He was touched with a feeling of our in- 
firmities. What language is this ! He was touched 
with a feeling of our infirmities. Blessed Jesus ! thou 
didst taste every sorrow, bear every grief. In the 
presence of the bereaved he wept, and over the 
sorrows of the wounded heart he heaved the sigh 
of tender compassion. 

We may follow the loved and the lost to the 
dark and silent grave. But Christ himself hath 
entered its portals, and over the conquered form of 
Death hath proclaimed himself the resurrection 
and the life, so that while we resign the forsaken 
form to the embrace of corruption, Ave know — we 
know that that corruptible shall put on incorruption, 
and that mortal shall put on immortality. 

And when we return, and our hearts bleed under 



21 



the pressure of an afflictive bereavement, there 
is a voice from Heaven saying-, come unto me all 
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give 
you rest. 

While the gospel does by no means promise you 
an exemption from evil, yet it presents truths which 
sustain and strengthen under the heaviest woes. 
It has promises which almost give a present Hea- 
ven. It spans the bright rainbow of peace and 
love over the darkest clouds. 

What language of sympathy shall I employ, dear 
friends, so consolatory as that which fell from the 
lips of Jesus ? What feelings can possess my heart 
as soothing as those which characterize a Saviour's 
love ? 

" Tis Christ and none but Christ can speak the word. 
There goes a power with his majestic voice, 
To hush the raging storm and charm its noise. 
Who but would fear and love to do his will, 
Who bids such tempests of the soul be still." 

I can but point you to Him, who can give the oil 
of joy for mourning, and the garments of praise for 
the spirit of heaviness. The blow which has fallen 
upon you was unquestionably severe. The young, 
the innocent, the blooming in life's early morning 
hath gone to the tomb. Parental fondness watched 
with anxious solicitude over that young flower; 
but no human care, no love, however strong, could 
charm away the approach of Death. She has 
gone. The storms of time will beat over her quiet 
resting place. AndT though Death came to her clad 
in unusual horrors, yet memory will retain a fond 



22 



recollection of her sunny smiles, and we will love to 
think of her, as on the holy Sabbath she came to 
this house of prayer, to read of that Saviour who 
said, " Surfer little children to come unto me and 
forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of 
Heaven." 

" As the bird to its sheltering nest, 

When the storm on the hills is abroad, 
So her spirit hath flown from this world of unrest, 

To repose on the bosom of God ; 
Where the sorrows of Earth never more 

May fling o'er its brightness a stain ; 
Where in rapture and love it shall ever adore, 

With a gladness unmingled with pain. 

There is weeping on earth for the lost, 

There is bowing in grief to the ground, 
But rejoicing and praise mid the sanctified host, 

For a spirit in Paradise found. 
Though brightness hath passed from the earth, 

Yet a star is new born in the sky, 
And a soul hath gone home to the land of its birth, 

Where are pleasures and fullness of joy: 
And a new harp is strung, and a new song is given 

To the breezes that float o'er the gardens of Heaven." 

Let us live so that we may become like that little 
child: " For verily I say unto you, whosoever shall 
not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he 
shall not enter therein." There must be a submis- 
siveness of heart, and a readiness of mind to re- 
ceive the commands and to do the will of our hea- 
venly Parent. There must be that childlike sense 
of dependence, which will lead us to a Father's 
hand. There must be that guilelessness of heart, 
and that joy in a parent's smile, which are exhibit- 



23 



ed by the little ones dependent upon earthly pa- 
rents. Happy shall we be, if the Spirit of God 
dwell in our hearts, and lead us daily to a Father's 
throne. 

I cannot close without observing, that while a 
fierce and dark disease has made its visitation in 
our village, disturbing a happy home, and exciting 
a panic and alarm in the minds of many; yet there 
is another malady here far more awful in its nature, 
more destructive in its effects : and this is the foul 
disease of sin, preying upon the soul, and we have 
reason to fear, hastening many away to the dark- 
ness and desolation of the second death. While 
you seek the security of your bodies, seek first, and 
above all, the health of your imperishable spirits. 
" Fear not them which kill the body, but are not 
able to kill the soul. But rather fear him which is 
able to destroy both soul and body in Hell." While 
the great destroyer lingers around, making his as- 
saults in a thousand forms, let us live so that the 
hope of the righteous may be ours, and our death 
may be the triumph of a living faith. 



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